Meet Nigeria’s visual artist beautifying beverage cans

Mathew Oyedele is a visual artist versed in the use of recycled wastes for his works. The Lagos based visual artist and art historian who started as a vendor said his tortuous journey into art prepared him to tackle challenges in the industry. The Ogun State-born artist beautifies beverage cans and aluminium materials with his […]

Mathew Oyedele is a visual artist versed in the use of recycled wastes for his works. The Lagos based visual artist and art historian who started as a vendor said his tortuous journey into art prepared him to tackle challenges in the industry.

The Ogun State-born artist beautifies beverage cans and aluminium materials with his art. In an interview with Allnews Nigeria, he said he aims to use his works to provide identity, tackle migration and engage social commentary.

Oyedele said, “I engage these materials by subjecting them to different processes including cutting, washing, squeezing, folding, painting and other processes because flexibility and physicality of these materials give me the liberty to explore and expand on different ideas, thereby making the materials to say different things and different ways.”

His artistry journey started in 2008 as an apprentice after he stopped selling newspapers. He said his friend had enrolled as an apprentice, “and I asked if I could join him. I went there to meet the boss that I would like to learn.”

He said after meeting the necessary requirements he started as an apprentice and part of his work schedule was cutting beverage cans. “We kept cutting and experimenting but I was not paying attention because I love playing football so I would leave the shop to go play football but I was observing.” But he did not stop cutting beverage cans and would tell his siblings to help pick from the streets while he kept learning and improving his skills.

“When I got to school, I saw that in the art department, every student was looking for something unique, an identity different from others. When I looked around, nobody was doing beverage cans then I delved into it.

“I picked my cans in school and started working on it and when I was in 200 Level, I made a portrait of Obafemi Awolowo with cans and a Mass Communication student saw it and said he would like to publish it in one of the dailies. I thought he was joking, but he came to my room, asked me some questions and some days later, I saw myself on the pages of some newspapers.”

He has never stopped gracing pages of newspapers and granting interviews to the media. Despite the rigours of cutting and making use of beverage cans, he said he could sit all day exploring the wastes.

“My art says a lot. I do not streamline myself to a particular art. If you look at my work, you will see it says a lot of things. Some talk about my childhood experiences. It talks about migration, identity, social commentary and so on,” he said.

He said despite sustaining a lot of injuries especially cuts on his fingers, his choice of career as an artist has affected his life and he does not plan to turn back.